A/N: So I wrote this a looong time ago, and never posted it, I really don't know why…I think once again I was unsure of the ending.
Set right after the series ended. The marriage is known by Billy and Francine. Amanda's family knows what they do for a living, but think Lee and Amanda are just engaged.
Courage Under Fire
Everything had turned bad so quickly Lee's head was spinning. It had been 40 minutes since they lost contact with Amanda. She knew going in that back up would take a while to get to her, and Lee cursed himself for allowing her to be in this position, but he knew that even if he hadn't allowed it she would have taken the assignment anyway.
Now he was closing in on her location using a homing device. The beeping grew louder as he approached a heavy steel door. Taking a breath he opened it quickly with his gun drawn.
The room was enormous and empty except a still form sitting on a chair in the middle. Lee rushed to her side. "Amanda!" he shouted, sinking to his knees he checked for a pulse. Having found a very fast irregular heart rate he examined her face.
She had a black eye, a cut outlined by a bruise on her forehead, and her lip was bleeding. His eyes traveled down to the blood coming from a nasty cut on her left arm. Her forearms were marked with needle track marks and her wrists were red and swollen from being restrained. That's when Lee noticed both hands were handcuffed and tied down.
"Amanda, can you hear me?" he asked with more strength then he felt. It was too dangerous to send a full recovery team; Lee was Amanda's only chance. Starting to free her arms he tried again, "Aman… Amanda?" his voice cracked unsure of what drugs she had been injected with and he was scared. Stopping from his task he gently took her face in both hands. "Amanda please let me know you're okay? Please. Amanda it's Lee."
"Hmm…" she moaned.
"Yes, Amanda open your eyes," he pleaded.
She slowly opened her eyes, blinking adjusting to the little light streaming in from the open door. Her face revealed the pain she was in. "Lee?" she whispered.
"Amanda," he breathed in relief and kissed her.
She groaned at the pressure on her swollen lip.
"I'm sorry. What hurts?"
Amanda blinked her eyes trying to focus on her husband. "Head hurts," she answered.
Lee moved a piece of hair gently away from the cut on her forehead. As he finished untying the ropes securing her wrists she grimaced slightly.
"He's got my lock pick. I got free and he found me. He was really mad I got out. He hit me and tied my hands down and cuffed them. I told him he was paranoid, you know like a man wearing a belt and suspenders. He didn't laugh, then everything went black," she rambled causing Lee to smile.
"Can you walk?" he asked once she was free.
She nodded, but her apprehension showed in her eyes. Lee gently helped her stand and put his arm around her waist to support her. Once in the hallway they tried to move as quickly as Amanda physically could until there was one last door to freedom. It was locked and required an access card to open. Lee help Amanda slowly sit on the ground while he worked to override the system.
Suddenly alarms sounded and the pair could hear footsteps closing in on them. Lee worked frantically to override the lock keeping one eye on Amanda. She was ghostly white and clearly struggling for breath. "Amanda, you still with me?"
She merely nodded her head slightly.
Lee cursed the lock, knowing he had a few seconds at best. To his relief the light turned green and the door opened. He scooped Amanda up as she weakly protested and hurried out the door. Once out the building gun shots and sirens assaulted his hears. Back up had arrived, but there was a showdown and he and Amanda were in the middle of it. Trying to find cover Francine spotted them given them the cover he needed and Lee was able to sprint to her side behind a wall of brown sedans.
Lee gently lay his wife's limp form down. He couldn't hear her breathing anymore. "Amanda, no," he panicked searching for a pulse.
Francine watched the scene with concern. Eternity seemed to have passed before Lee found a pulse, but began rescue breathing. Francine let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding.
Lee's world consisted of Amanda only. He was oblivious to the gun shots and shouting. All that mattered was that Amanda was not breathing on her own. "Come on Amanda, fight," he whispered between breaths. Suddenly her head shot to one side as she took in her own breath and moaned.
Amanda's eyes searched frantically for Lee, trying to focus.
"I'm right here. You're okay," he reassured them both, holding her hand and caressing her face. "Just relax, I'm going to get you out of here." Lee became aware of their position and surroundings, "Amanda I need to move you. You'll be safer if we sit you up next to Francine," he explained.
Amanda merely nodded her agreement and allowed Lee to move her.
Francine for her part had already grabbed a med kit. "I'll take care of her, go work on getting her out of here," she ordered already working on her friend. Once Lee was out of ear shot, "Amanda what did they give you?" she asked referring to the needle marks.
Amanda looked down. "Thyprolien," she answered quietly.
"They duplicated the sample?" Francine asked in amazement and fear. Amanda's assignment had been to locate the drug before there was time to crack the formula.
Amanda shook her head. "I injected myself with the sample, I don't know what they gave me," she whispered.
"Amanda, no wonder you quite breathing. We need to get you out of here fast," Francine finished with concern as she finished wrapping her friend's raw and bleeding wrists.
"Doc McJohn needs a blood sample. They need to figure this drug out," Amanda told the blonde. "Francine..."
Francine looked up from her task. "What's wrong Amanda?"
"They've got a test subject now too," she spoke with determination.
Francine opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted as Lee and Billy joined them under the cover of gunshots.
Billy sensed the tension immediately. "What's going on?" he asked.
Amanda looked away. She didn't want to face Lee when he found out what she had done.
"Amanda has the sample," Francine began.
"That's great," Lee answered confused that the two were not happy about the revelation.
Francine shook her head. "Not so great. She injected herself with it. It's in her," she clarified.
Lee felt like the wind was knocked out of him. He didn't want to believe it, but Amanda was refusing to look at him.
"Amanda is that true?" Billy asked.
She shook her head weakly.
"Do they know?" their boss asked motioning toward the warehouse.
"No. They knew I found it, and were trying to get me to tell them where I hid it. It never occurred to them I would be so foolish—"
"—Amanda Stetson that was not foolish. That's the bravest thing one of my agents has ever done. Your assignment was to get the sample at any cost, and I trust your judgment," Billy interrupted her. "Now we need to get you out of here."
Amanda half listened as the plan was set into motion to move her to relative safety. Her eyes were focused on Lee. "I'm sorry," she mouthed.
Lee moved to her side immediately allowing her to lean on him. He hadn't meant to make her feel guilty; he was just shocked and scared. No one knew exactly what the drug did, other than the fact it was produced solely for the purpose of long Russian interrogations where the recipient was needed to be conscious, for the most part, for extended periods of time but with maximum pain. Long term effects were unknown, as well as specifics on how the drug worked. When Lee first heard of it he joked that it sounded like a bad sci-fi plot, but now he was forced to face the reality of it. Lee could only image how she must be feeling.
A sudden blur of activity erupted as Lee felt hands grab him, and his wife pulled from his grasp. He heard a small moan escape her mouth, but there was no time for gentleness. If the truth of where the sample had gone was realized, Lee doubted they would make it out of there.
Once they were loaded onto the armored medical evac truck Lee sat back to watch helplessly as Amanda was treated like a pin cushion.
--\--
Lee sat quietly in the agency room watching his wife sleep. Under the circumstances it was agreed by all that Amanda should be brought there instead of a hospital. Her physical injuries were minor-a concussion, several stitches, and bruises-the drugs in her system were the serious matter. Doc McJohn had the facilities there to deal with any, "complications" was the term he used. Lee shook his head. They wanted the sample just as badly as every other agency in the world. Lee just kept reminding himself that she was safer there.
"Lee," Francine spoke.
He glanced up seeing Billy with the blonde, "I didn't hear you guys come in. Did everyone get out safely?" he asked.
Billy nodded his head, "No other injuries. We were able to clear out about ten minutes after you. As far as we know they don't know where the Thyprolien is."
"How is she?" Francine asked the concern filling her voice.
"She's stable. They're concerned that she's been sleeping. Thyprolien should be having the opposite effect, but with the concussion and all the other drugs in her system they really don't know what to expect. They told me to wake her in about an hour if she doesn't wake up on her own," Lee finished, and looked at Amanda. The bruises on her face stood out because of her paleness. "This is stupid. Why would a scientist create this drug and not keep any records? Why would anyone take that drug and kill the only one with the formula?" Lee asked running his hand through his hair in frustration. "And why did they have to bring it to D.C.?" he finished quietly.
"As far as we can tell Dr. Krauss was coerced into making the drug. He was afraid for his own life if he had a hard copy of his research, and we don't know for sure that he didn't have a hard copy somewhere. We need to follow up on some leads."
Lee nodded his head. "I'm going to wait here for her to wake up, or I'll wake her up. I want to talk to her to find out if she learned anything else and then I'll join you in the bullpen."
Billy offered his agent a sympathetic nod and left motioning Francine to come with him.
Amanda slowly opened her eyes.
"Hey there," Lee answered with a smile. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I made a big mistake," she said with a grimace.
Lee squeezed her hand and smiled, "You were an agent with a decision to make. It wasn't a mistake Amanda. You did the only thing you could do."
"I love you."
Lee leaned in to kiss her, "I love you too." Once they parted they both knew it was time to get down to business. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Amanda nodded and closed her eyes remembering the previous three days. She had been placed undercover as a temp lab technician at Lange's Pharmaceutical. The background checks had been rigorous and Amanda was the only one at the agency that could pass as a civilian and still have the clearance needed at the agency to work on such an important case. Lange's had been under suspicion for years for manufacturing biohazardous chemicals solely for monetary gain. Consequently there were past run-ins with the agency, but nothing would stick; they had gained many friends in positions of power as well as money along the way. Amanda would be an unknown to them. Amanda took the assignment against Lee's better judgment.
She ran over the events once more in her mind and then started. "After two days of dead ends, finally one of the bugs I had placed picked up the conversation between Dr. Hargrave and Dr. Rice. They were apparently over confident in their security and pretty much came out and said where the sample was being stored," she told him with a slight smile.
"It also seemed that they didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to it because there was no extra security around the secondary lab where they were working on cracking the formula. I knew the guard's routine, and the timing of the video cameras.
"Once I made it into the lab I found the sample in a few minutes. I thought it was weird that it was stored in a syringe, but I figured that's how it was when they took it. When I opened the door a crack to see if the hallway was clear Dr. Rice spotted me" her breath quickened remembering the emotions of the moment.
Lee took her hand, but remained silent.
"I quickly shut the door and was able to block it with a filing cabinet, buying me some time. The only option I really saw was to inject myself. Even if back up was able to get me out of there, there would have been no way to go back and get the needle," she explained looking to Lee for reassurance.
"I was the right decision. Most people would not have thought that clearly under the circumstances," Lee replied.
Amanda nodded her thanks, "I filled the needle up with another drug that was in the cooler and placed it in a rack full of other needles just like that one. I put it right in the middle of about 40 of them," Amanda finished.
Lee grinned, amazed at her quick thinking. He wasn't sure that he would have handled the situation that well. "You're incredible," he answered simply.
She blushed at the compliment, "Thank you," and then continued, "They finally got the door opened, and took me to the room you found me in. I never told them where the sample was, they never asked the right questions so it was pretty easy to not give it away even with all the drugs they gave me."
Lee watched her eyes as the memories of what actually happened in the room were recalled. He knew she was censoring it for his benefit, "What you did was not easy."
Amanda smiled again. "What did Doc McJohn say?" she asked changing the subject to one that was both foremost on their mind.
"Everything is still in preliminary testing. They were concerned that you were sleeping and have been watching your blood pH and your breathing very carefully because of the episode you had just before we got you out of there," Lee shivered remembering his wife's pale face and limp body. He covered his momentary lapse by shifting from his chair to her bed. She immediately moved to accommodate him as she snuggled into his chest. "How are you feeling really?" he asked in concern.
Amanda shrugged, "Pretty lousy, like I have a bad case of the flu. My head throbs. I think my arm hurts worse than anything really," she answered honestly motioning to the bandage that was now covering the gash on her left arm.
Following her eyes, he nodded, "How did that happen?"
Hesitating, she wanted desperately to explain, but also felt the need to protect her husband. Knowing it would all be in her report she sighed. "Right after they got the door open I thought it would be a good idea to fight, make it look like I had the drug with me, and wanted to get away with it. Dr. Rice had a knife, but I didn't see it until it was too late," she finished, looking up into a pair of hazel eyes.
The mix of emotions she saw were too hard to interpret.
Clearing his throat, Lee choose to move on to a safer subject. "I need to get down to the bullpen, and brief Billy on this. Do you think you'll be ok?" he asked not wanting to leave her alone.
"Oh yeah. I think I feel alright," she explained. "I think I could even come with, give them more details."
"Well I know that sounds like a very bad idea, but I'll send Francine down later to officially debrief you," he scolded lightly, and moved to get up.
Amanda placed a hand on his arm to stop him, "What about my family?"
They had wanted to come clean with the family. They were each both tired of lying to them on a continual basis, but recently it had seemed that the lying was easier then the truth.
"What do you think?" he asked, still uneasy about their personal life.
Shaking her head, she released him. "I don't think I'll tell them anything yet. We don't know anything," she told him.
Standing, he leaned over her, placing a kiss on her forehead. "I think it's for the best. I'll be back down when the debriefing is over, but you call up there if you need me sooner," he pleaded, and slowly left her side.
TBC